The Old Man and the Sea: The Other Story
by argella1300
Summary: The story of The Old Man and the Sea told from the point of view of the fish. Please read and review.


The Old Man and the Sea: The Other Story

I woke from my sleep today, eager to start the day, and my stomach asking me for food. I smelled around, and located a scent of sardines. I was a little apprehensive at first because the smell wasn't moving, and sardines normally wouldn't be at 100 fathoms. I distinctly remembered my mentor, Diego, saying, "be careful of smells that don't travel or are from something that you normally wouldn't find at your current depth Plata, it could be a trap." I disregarded that thought, because after all, self-preservation is key. If I don't find enough food to feed myself, I will die.

So I located the scent again, and I went in that direction. I took the food gratefully, since it was my first meal of the day. I realized it was actually tuna that had been flavored with sardine. I liked the taste a lot and swallowed the fish. I then proceeded to swim away to carry about my own business. I felt a gentle tug on my lip, but I didn't pay any attention to it at the time and kept going. Then I smelled some more food down deeper and I dove to catch it. It got away, but I decided to remain at my current depth for a while. The deep sea had always fascinated me. The creatures looked very different down here, never exposed to light under the crushing pressure of the water. Everything looks alien and the landscape is harsh and cold, with undersea volcanoes spewing smoke and ash into the water in thick, black clouds that were unbearably hot and impossible to see through.

Then I felt sharp tugs, but I easily resisted them and kept on my own merry way. I continued to swim on my own at my current depth. I was hungry now but every fish I tried to catch ended up getting away just before I could reach it. It was infuriating. I couldn't tell what time it was, I was too far down to be able to see the golden disk in the sky or the silver disk in the sky along with its shiny friends, and I could not tell which direction I was going in without their help, so I stayed on the current path I was on and didn't change it. Later I sensed the vibrations being given off by two porpoises farther off. I knew instantly that one was a male and one was a female from the difference in the patterns the vibrations had.

I remember a time when I had a female friend. It was a long time ago and I've lost count of the gold disks and the silver disks that had passed in that time. The both of us were swimming together when we smelled some food. Just like this time, it wasn't moving and we were down deep as well and the food they found normally wasn't at this level. I told her to be careful, but she said that we need to survive so we have to eat whatever we can catch. So, I let her eat first, because that's what you always do when you dine with a female. She realized she had been caught and she started to panic. I stayed with her the entire time, calming her down, saying goodbye. It's still a painful memory for me. I watched her grow tired very quickly, and I circled the surface with her as she was being dragged towards the big shadow that was floating on the surface of the water. Once he had her tied up, he grabbed her nose with his appendage and beat her head with a blunt instrument until the last of the light that was always in her eyes disappeared. It was almost too painful to watch. But I knew I needed to remain strong for her sake.

Then he pulled her onto his vessel; something inside of me grew into a want, then a need. I had to see her one last time. So I summoned all my strength and jumped high into the air, just to catch one last glimpse of her. After I saw her, I dove down deep as fast as I could. I needed to be alone for a while. I then found myself angry for letting myself think about that, and I surged on ahead with new determination to prove that I wasn't still grieving about her.

In one final act of anger, I decided to jump and began the gradual climb to the surface. I soon surged upwards and I felt all of the water tumbling off my skin, and the different texture of the air made me gasp as I came up.

But what also made me gasp was the brown vessel and the two-legged creature hunched over inside it, holding a skinny rope that I saw led to me.

I had been caught.

I quickly dove back down into the depths. At first u was horrified. I had been hooked, why didn't I realize it earlier? I thought to myself with anger. I could have easily gotten rid of him and been on my merry way! If _she_ were here, she would have been angry, telling me to snap out of it and that this two-legged meat sack would be easy for me to deal with. But then I realized if I let myself be caught, I could be with her again. But then she would probably hit me with her tail and tell me to wipe that look off my face and say, "If you are going to die, you might as well go down with a fight." I realized that she was right. I know I'm going to die soon, but if I am, I might as well give this two-legged creature hell before I go.

I know that because I jumped, I can't dive down as deep any more, so I'll have to stay closer to the surface, but that's fine, that means I'll be able to give him more trouble when he tries to pull me in. I knew I was starting to feel fatigued. I haven't eaten anything since he caught me and I don't know how long it's been since I rested, but I'm finally starting to feel the effects. Fighting him was going to be difficult, and I'll have to conserve my energy for when it really counts.

From my depth I could clearly see the shimmering gold disk sinking into the sea. There can't have been only one passing of the gold disk, could there? It felt like so much longer. But I had better prepare myself for the coming of the silver disk, dusk is always a dangerous time to be out, it's when the sharks feed. I slowed down a bit in order to conserve my energy and also because I was very tired from swimming for almost two days straight without any rest.

Then I don't know what happened, but I blacked out and I saw my female friend again. She looked sad. And she spoke to me, she said,

"Plata, why didn't you fight to save me when I was caught? Why didn't you set me free? Did you really not care about me enough to think about cutting the line?" this hit me right where it hurt.

" I wanted to save you, I truly, did, but I-"

"You were afraid?" she asked

"No, I already knew that you were going to die no matter what I did, so what was the point?" I admitted.

"Did you really think that? Did you really know what was going to happen? One little flick of your tail and you could have snapped the line easily. So why didn't you really do it? And why are you not fighting what ever has caught you? Did you give up on that already as well?" she said, disappointment creeping into her voice.

"No! I haven't given up on anything yet at all!"

"Maybe you have and maybe you haven't, but I know you've given up on something, come talk to me again when you realize what it is." She started to swim away, and no matter how much I yelled at her to come back, she couldn't hear me.

I awoke with a start and started jumping furiously out of the water. I saw flashes of the twinkling friends of the silver disk above me and flashes of the vessel with the two-legged creature inside it. I saw glimpses of water droplets shivering and looking like liquid plata, silver. As I came down with a last crash I realized I would have to swim even closer to the surface than before.

I saw the golden disk rise again. My mind was in a daze and even now my memory of the events is hazy. I started to circle the vessel. Continually, I felt a hard tug through the side of my mouth, making me come closer to it. My circles got shorter and shorter as I got closer to the vessel, and I could see the golden disk getting closer and closer to me as I rose.

I hit something hard, though I did not see what it was, and I kept going on in that same trance-like state as before. I hit the object again several more times, and I got even closer to the vessel each time. I surfaced soon afterwards, and I was very close to the vessel now. The two-legged creature tugged on me hard, and I felt myself roll over a little bit. I straightened myself and kept circling the creature, getting close to it now. He pulled on me hard several more times, I rolled, and then I righted my self again.

Then with one hard pull, I was dragged right beside the boat. I didn't resist, and I stayed there patiently while he raised his sharp stick high. He was in silhouette, and I could see the golden disk beyond the tip of the pointy stick. It came down fast and into my flesh. I felt it dig through me and I screamed with agony as I leapt high and writhed in pain.

Everything was fading fast, but she was the clearest thing that I could see now. My vision started to go gray and the last thing I felt was myself coming down though the air towards the water, I heard the loud crash and felt the stinging snmck of water against my skin. And I could see her, I could almost touch her again. I wanted to be with her again. I wanted to let her know that I deeply regretted not saving her that time. I had to let her know before I was done.

"I'm sorry." With that, I let everything else fade into nothingness, and when she came to me, her eyes were filled with understanding. She didn't say anything to me, but the message in her eyes was understood.

She forgave me.


End file.
